Day of the Kamikaze Teachers' Guide

Day of the Kamikaze DVD

The Sinking of USS Princeton DVD

Il Duce Benito Mussolini wanted the Mediterranean to be an Italian Lake. When he declared war against a defiant Britain and a defeated France on June 10, 1940, he told his military commanders the war would last four months.

In making plans for war, the Japanese coveted the tin and rubber of Malaya. The islands were rich in resources, and nearby Java had badly needed oil. The American embargo had left Japan with enough oil to last through 1944 if consumption was reduced.

At the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets held a salient near the town of Kursk, 125 miles north of Kharkov. If this bulge could be eliminated, a great encirclement could be accomplished on the scale of the 1941 battles. Adolf Hitler in the spring of 1943 realized that he had to crush the Red Army before it completely surpassed the Wehrmacht in size and quantity.

Korea had been an outright occupied province of Japan since 1910. In reality Japan had controlled the government since 1905. The Korean Army was disbanded and the Korean language and culture were outlawed.